Maverick and BQFJ publish a white paper that explores the beginnings of the open access movement and its impact and significance for the future of academic publishing.

Open access publishing has arrived.

There are now more than 7000 titles listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals and hundreds of thousands of open access articles deposited with institutions, subject specific repositories and published in journals. But these figures don’t represent a mature industry, the revolution is still underway and there’s much potential still to be realised.
In 2011 the overall picture of open access was not only one of growth, but also of diversification. Open access is beginning to spill out from the academic fields where it was enthusiastically pioneered, including medicine and earth sciences, into a range of other disciplines.

This is accelerating the take-up of open access and opening new possibilities for multi-disciplinary work.

To explore this new publishing model in more depth, Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Journals commissioned a white paper that looked at the beginnings of open access and its impact and significance for the future of academic publishing. A synopsis of this paper appeared in UKSG eNews on 3rd February 2012.

To access the complete paper, please click here.

Maverick Announces new sales representation agreements, personnel and consultancy partnerships

Dorset, UK, 6th October 2011  – Maverick Outsource Services, the specialist consultancy and outsource company for the publishing industry, today announced extended sales representation agreements for two publisher clients, as well as new service partnerships in recruitment and technical consultancy. 

Mariam Hasan has joined Maverick as Sales and Publishing Associate and will be responsible for a new sales representation agreement for Woodhead Publishing’s ebook platform, Woodhead Publishing Online (www.woodheadpublishingonline.com), in North America. This agreement includes representing Woodhead Publishing at both consortia and individual institution level and further extends the work of Maverick’s European sales team, who have been supporting Woodhead Publishing Online sales in the UK and Europe since June, 2011.

Mariam has over 12 years senior international publishing experience and brings valuable knowledge of the region to support Maverick’s expanding operations in the North America region. Her expertise includes past positions in global product development at ProQuest Information and Learning for the ABI/INFORM suite of databases as well as sales management and content development for 30 peer-reviewed journals at Palgrave Macmillan. Most recently, Mariam worked for Emerald as Vice President, Canada where she significantly increased Emerald's local market presence and built a strong market for their e-books. Mariam currently provides local market strategy formulation and sales management support for Maverick's clients and their e-book products and services.

At the same time, Maverick is also pleased to announce that Mark Furneaux, previously Managing Director, European Operations at CSA, has joined Maverick as a Senior Associate for Sales and Business Development in EMEA and International. Mark has a wealth of electronic publishing experience, from both a strategic and day to day, operational perspective and headed CSA’s European activities with responsibility for all regional sales, marketing, editorial and G&A operations. He later joined ProQuest as part of the CSA/ProQuest merger before leaving in 2007 to join Wize Nordic as Business Development Director. Mark will provide publisher sales and marketing support in European markets as well as assisting Maverick’s own business development initiatives in International regions.

In related news, Maverick are delighted to announce that they are now representing The Charleston Advisor on a global level, with responsibility for both national consortia as well as individual institution sales. The agreement covers all territories (excluding the US) and also includes supporting renewal acquisition and sales related marketing as well as generating new sales for this specialist and high profile industry publication.

And finally, in the UK, Maverick has established partnership affiliations with two publishing industry service providers, Morgan Healey Recruitment and i-Publishing Consultants, to further extend its range of solutions for publisher clients.

In the agreement with Morgan Healey, Maverick will provide recruitment support in two distinct areas.  In the first instance, Maverick will use it global network of contacts and associates to assist Morgan Healey in identifying suitable candidates for permanent positions they may be asked to fill. In the second instance, Maverick will also provide interim management and fixed term project based support for Morgan Healey clients whilst they are engaged in the permanent recruitment process.

Also, at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Maverick and i-Publishing Consultants will embark on a new reciprocal arrangement whereby both parties will mutually support each other's technical consultancy capabilities. As well as Maverick personnel being in attendance on i-Publishing’s stand to join discussions concerning the content delivery and community based platforms i-Publishing represents, the two companies will also use the show as a starting point to explore how they can best use their combined expertise to help publishers in all aspects of technology and platform development, content production and conversion as well as designing, managing and implementing custom built eContent solutions.

About Woodhead Publishing Limited
Woodhead Publishing Limited is an independent international publishing company publishing in the areas of Food Science, Technology and Nutrition, Materials and Engineering, Welding and Metallurgy, Textile Technology, Energy & Environmental Technology and Finance, Commodities and Business Studies and Mathematics. For further information, please visit www.woodheadpublishing.com or www.woodheadpublishingonline.com.

About The Charleston Advisor
The Charleston Advisor publishes critical reviews of online resources for libraries. To maintain a high level of accuracy and integrity, all reviews are peer-reviewed by experienced librarians. Reviewers come from all areas of librarianship and from all types of libraries, ensuring that products are reviewed by people who actually use them. For further information, please visit http://www.charlestonco.com.

About i-Publishing Consultants Ltd
i-Publishing Consultants helps organisations create new value by enabling them to take control of their content and engage more effectively with their customers and other ‘communities of interest’. To achieve this we provide strategic and project based digital marketing and technology consultancy and also design and deliver interactive solutions that meet next generation needs. For further information, please visit www.i-publishingconsultants.com.

About Morgan Healey
Morgan Healey is a leading international executive search & recruitment business that operates within STM publishing (Science, Technology, Medical) academic & digital information. With over 25 years industry experience, we work with the most prestigious publishing companies across the world. For further information, please visit http://www.morganhealey.com.

Maverick Adds Senior Management Experience

Dorset, UK March 25, 2011 – Maverick Outsource Services Ltd (MOSL), the specialist outsource solutions company for the publishing industry, today announced the addition of Michael J. Margotta as a member of its Board as well as further strength in-depth across all its divisions with senior level appointments in e-publishing, digital content support, technology consultancy and SEO / Social Media eMarketing.

Michael will join MOSL full time from July 1, 2011 and assume the role of Senior Associate, Head of Global Business Development.  In this role, Michaelwill provide consultation for publishing and e-distribution strategies in addition to his responsibilities for all Maverick business development operations and activities.

Prior to his appointment at Maverick, Michael was Director of Sales and Marketing for MetaPress, where he provided electronic content hosting solutions, assisting publishers in reaching target academic audiences at consortia, institutional and individual levels.  Previously, he was the President and CEO at Technomic Publishing Company, a producer of high quality scientific and medical reference books and primary research journals.

“I am very excited about the opportunity to leverage my various publishing experiences and apply them to specific publisher needs and projects,” said Michael. “Providing the high level of experienced expertise that Maverick associates can offer to the publishing industry in aperiod with unprecedented challenges will be an honour and privilege.”

Martin Marlow, Principal of Maverick Outsource Services, added, "As Maverick continues to grow and support publishers, intermediaries and publishing solution providers from all markets and regions of the world, it is essential we continue to recruit the talent, expertise and in-depth knowledge that will help our clients address the challenges presented by the rapidly changing publishing environment. Michael will be both a great asset for our customers as well as a valuable addition to our senior management structure.”

Michael has over 25 years senior management experience, both as Head of an STM publishing house and providing consultation for e-distribution platforms.  Specializing in new business development, acquisitions, operations management, vendor service proposal analysis, contract negotiations, customer relations and marketing, he has in-depth knowledge of world markets and has provided support services for publishers of all sizes and in a variety of subject disciplines.  He has worked extensively in journal start-ups, book projects, reference work series and database development with specific focus on creating e-distribution platforms suited to the content needs.

Other recent Senior level appointments include Eric Helff, former Director of Web Marketing Content at IBM and Lenovo.  Eric joins MOSL’s marketing division, bringing further expertise in eMarketing, SEO and Social Media strategies and solutions. His previous achievements include the successful web marketing and global outreach for IBM’s ThinkPad notebook line, plus development and deployment of the web-based marketing content on IBM and Lenovo's websites for major alliances including Intel, Microsoft and AMD.

With more than 20 years experience in STM and Scholarly publishing, Howard Stanbury (formerly Head of Publishing at International Food Information Service) has also joined Maverick's senior team and will utilize his breadth of industry knowledge tooffer both strategic and operational advice and support across print and electronic resources, with particular focus on digital transition and production as well as sales and marketing development.  Whilst at IFIS, Howard's  achievements included work on the development of their successful web-based platform, FTSA Direct.

Judith Barnsby (formerly Head of eDevelopment for IOP and Senior Account Manager at Publishing Technology / Ingenta) joins MOSL's Technology and eContent consultancy division as Senior Associate. Judith's wealth of ePublishing experience includes development of eJournal and database delivery platforms as well as high usage, user-facing websites for authors, referees, readers and libraries. Her strategic and operational product and account management expertise spans all forms of digital media and she is also active in the industry as chair of the  JISC PALS Metadata and Interoperability Working Group. Judith has also served on various boards and committees including CLOCKSS, PIRUS2 and CrossCheck.

And finally, RosieGrimes (former Managing Editor at IOP and Journals Publisher at IMechE) has joined the same MOSL eContent consultancy team, providing expertise in all areas of journal editorial process, new (e)journal development and QA. With particular emphasis on process design for peer review, supplier performance, anti-plagiarism and electronic submission, Rosie has spent over 22 years working in the academic journal sector.

“We are pleased to welcome these new associates to Maverick,” said Martin Marlow.  “These appointments ensure that we can continue to offer the highest quality experience and advice and I am delighted that they have agreed to join our ever expanding international team.”

Maverick clients launch two new content platforms

Dorset, UK – Maverick Outsource Services, the specialist outsource solutions company for the publishing industry, today announced the forthcoming launch of new online platforms from two of its current customers.

The recently founded publishing house, Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Journals (BQFJ) will be launching its new online content platform, QScience.com, in mid-December. The new platform will deliver a broad portfolio of open access journals and developed to the highest international peer review standards. Maverick were originally retained over summer 2010 to assist with the RFP and vendor selection processes for both the QScience.com platform itself, as well as the associated peer review system. However, Maverick have now been asked to stay with the project as an outsourced technical and content production management resource through to mid 2011, assisting the BQFJ with further developments to its "next generation" scholarly publishing system.

Arend Kuster, Managing Director at BQFJ commented, "Maverick were the obvious choice to guide us through the initial process, as they understood our initial requirements immediately and their in-depth market knowledge, technical understanding and knowledge of the business needs for publishers were extremely valuable. But they have continued to add fantastic value to our strategic and business goals and always have an immediate and cost effective solution or resource for whatever challenges we come across. I'm delighted they will be with us through to next summer".

New UK based eTextbook Aggregator, Reference Tree, is also launching its new platform to all UK higher education this week. Maverick have assisted Reference Tree from the beginning with both their strategic and operational marketing (including coordinating the launch), publisher relations and negotiation as well as business strategy development. Again, Maverick have now been retained to continue providing these support services throughout next year.

Innovative in approach, Reference Tree is supported by world renowned publishers such as Elsevier, Taylor + Francis, Sage, Hodder Education, McGaw Hill, Cambridge University Press and many others. The online service aggregates textbooks across a broad range of subject areas and enables them to be purchased by the chapter, in addition to the full text if required.

Amil Tolia, CEO of Reference Tree said, " "Whether advice on copy for marketing collateral or negotiating contracts with major Publishers, Maverick Outsource Services have been instrumental in providing accurate, timely and appropriate advice built on a deep knowledge of the industry and its major players. Reference Tree looks forward to continuing to build on its presence with support from Maverick Outsource Services through 2011."

In associated news, Maverick will end 2010 with continued expansion of both its international client base and operations. As well as the BQFJ and Reference Tree, other clients such as Springer SBM (strategic and operational marketing services) and The Charleston Advisor (technical strategy and production support) are also extending and expanding their use of Maverick's services in 2011. New clients also now include Oxford University Press' ELT division, who are using Maverick's specialist contract project management personnel to assist with their e-content production.

Maverick also continues to increase its resource bank of e-specialists and strengthen its Senior Management team. New appointments include Sara Killingworth (ex ProQuest) to head up its expanding Market Research and Analysis department and Tricia Horner, who joins this week as Senior Human Resources Associate following 17 years in director level roles for publishers including Blackwells Ltd, Nelson Thornes and Infinitas Learning. Finally, to support its expanding international business, new regional offices will be opening in both Asia Pacific and South America during the first quarter of 2011.

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About Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Journals
Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Journals (BQFJ), founded in 2009, is a unique collaboration, owned by Qatar Foundation and managed by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (www.bloomsbury.com), which focuses on fostering scholarly and research communication. BQFJ publishes a range of peer-reviewed and high-quality open access journals, databases and repositories through its online content portal QScience.com.

About Reference Tree
Reference Tree is a new eTextbook Aggregator focussed on the UK Higher Education market. Launched in November 2010 with titles from leading academic Publishers, Reference Tree's per-chapter model enables students to spread their investment in their textbooks over the year and provides a new digital revenue model for Publishers. Please see www.reference-tree.com for more details.

About Maverick Outsource Solutions
Maverick is the leading, specialist outsource services company designed specifically for the publishing industry. Focussed on providing strategic and operational sales and marketing; market research; product development and technical consultancy; direct sales and distributor / partner relations support for publishers in all market sectors, the Maverick team are publishing specialists with expertise across all areas of print and electronic information.

Maverick expands services and geographic reach

Dorset, UK – The expansion of Maverick Marketing, the outsource services company for the publishing industry, continues this week with the establishment of technical development, project management and marketing support offices in Dublin, Ireland.

Established to serve Maverick’s increasing European and worldwide customer base, as well as provide localised support for its Irish clients, Maverick IE has been formed by assuming control of the Irish e-consultancy and technical development business, newchapter ie. The new entity will provide a full suite of technology and publishing consultancy services.

“It’s the right moment for this expansion” said Maverick Principal and founder Martin Marlow, “having worked with the team in Ireland for many years, I know this move will not only augment Maverick’s existing expertise and skill base, but also help us provide the extended range of technical and publishing capabilities that our clients have been asking for.”

As part of the new division, New Chapter founders, Liam Chambers and Clyde Hatter will join the Maverick Senior Management Team, bringing with them a broad range of print and electronic publishing, onshore / offshore project management as well as technical development skills. They will also continue to oversee clients such as Chartered Accountants Ireland, The Law Reform Commission of Ireland and Barbour EHS.

“We expect to make a significant contribution to Maverick and its customers over the coming years. We also see this move as being of benefit to clients here in Ireland, as we will now be able to extend our scope of services to include expertise and experience from Maverick specialists in the UK, Europe and the USA”, said Chambers.

As well as extending Maverick’s technical development and project management outsourcing solutions, one of the first deliverables from the process will be a Maverick-specific publishing platform and e-publishing toolkit for small and medium sized publishers.

“It’s an application for those publishers who want to make their information assets work harder” said Clyde Hatter. “What we are providing is a low-cost, low-risk, fast-to-market solution which will allow our customers to create websites, print publications and e-books all from the same source data, without having to impact on existing processes.”

The platform uses well-established components selected for robustness, scalability and ease of use. “We’re using a road-tested approach built on the back of a number of engagements” said Hatter. “For example Chartered Accountants Ireland have been using an early version of the platform to produce content for websites, printed books and, most recently, e-books for over a year now.” The move also provides Maverick with access to proven offshore development, content management, editorial, print and production management services — enabling the firm to provide clients with a single managed service irrespective size or location.

Maverick will be formally announcing the expansion at the London Book Fair in April and at a thought leadership seminar for publishers in Ireland, scheduled for May.

Maverick adds new Institutional Sales Division

Dorset, UK – Maverick Outsource Services, the specialist outsource solutions company for the publishing industry, today announced its further expansion with the creation of a new division that specialises in providing dedicated, targeted product sales representation for academic and educational publishers.

Delivering high quality direct sales and sales support services, Maverick's new Institutional Sales Division specialises in accessing academic, public and national libraries around the World. It has extensive experience in selling both directly to institutions and national consortia, as well as selecting and managing specialist distributors and agents on behalf of its publisher clients. In addition to direct sales, the team will also provide assistance in other aspects of sales development including creation of targeted sales strategies, market and customer type sales segmentation, competitor analysis as well as regional marketing support including localised publicity distribution and exhibition/conference representation.

The division will be headed up by Deborah Harman, former Director of International Sales at ABC CLIO and founder of Publishing Sales Solutions (PSS), which now forms the basis of the new division. Deborah joined the Maverick Senior Management team in June 2010.

“We are delighted to be working with Maverick,” said Deborah. “This will bring many new sales opportunities as well as a much wider selection of outsource services to explore. In addition to the direct sales and distributor management we already offered, increasingly we were being asked to provide assistance in developing sales strategies, identifying new customers as well as market analysis and general marketing. Now, our clients have access to a level of expertise that provides all these additional elements. There was a natural fit and the timing worked well.”

The Institutional Sales Division brings extensive experience to publishers wishing to tap into the international marketplace. With in-depth expertise in global academic sales, in particular in EMEA and Asia Pacific, as well as a background in developing distribution networks in all regions of the world, the Maverick team has existing relationships with a wide range of agents and regional distributors who are already established and ready to sell content into the markets they serve.

“Offering sales, distribution and distributor support solutions was a natural extension to what Maverick already provide its client base.” said Martin Marlow, Principal and Founder of Maverick Outsource Services. “More and more of our clients were asking for direct sales to compliment the consultancy and strategic work we were already supplying. It made sense to provide an overall package. We can now offer clients a complete portfolio of services from sales and marketing to platform development, technical consultancy to partner development and supplier relations.”

The Institutional Sales Division is the latest in the expansion of Maverick Outsource Services internationally. In the last few months, the company has added technical development and project management outsourcing solutions, international sales, as well as additional market analysis and publishing strategy capability. With recent assignments for publishers from all market sectors and regions of the world, the company is reporting continued growth across all its divisions.

Maverick Marketing selected to assist RFP process for newly formed Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Journals

Dorset, UK- Maverick Marketing, the outsource services company for the publishing industry has been selected to generate the Request for Proposal (RFP) and oversee and assist the vendor selection process for a new Journals Management, Distribution and E-Commerce System as well as an Online Submission and Peer-Review System to be established as part of a unique partnership between Bloomsbury Publishing Plc and Qatar Foundation.

In December 2009, Qatar Foundation, Qatar National Research Fund and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc announced a new publishing venture, Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Journals (BQFJ). BQFJ was established to publish scientific research developed to the highest international peer-review standards and connect the international research community to Qatar, one of the fastest growing areas for research and development in the world.

Maverick Marketing was selected for its in-depth experience working with both Publishers and Libraries and its particular technical expertise in the field of multi-format electronic content and delivery systems. Maverick Marketing is the leading electronic media consultancy company aimed at the Publishing industry. It comprises of a group of electronic publishing specialists who provide customized strategic and operational consultancy solutions tailored to the needs of individual customers.

Martin Marlow, Maverick’s Principal commented, “We are delighted to have been selected to assist with this leading-edge digital project and to be working with BQFJ who are looking to establish an innovative new publishing entity.” Arend Küster, Managing Director of Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Journals added: “BQFJ is trying to create the next generation scholarly publishing system. Maverick was an obvious choice to guide us through the process, as they understood our requirements immediately. Their in-depth market knowledge, technical understanding and knowledge of the business needs for publishers is extremely valuable at the early stages”.

Maverick Launches as Marketing Outsource Company for the Publishing Industry

Dorset, UK – Maverick Marketing, a company delivering a range of marketing and market development outsource services aimed at supporting the publishing industry, launches today. With the mission of providing the most comprehensive, versatile and cost effective outsourced solutions available, the company specializes in strategic marketing, marketing communications and research, product development and partner management.

Designed to augment existing in-house capabilities, Maverick has the resources and knowledge to provide expert support to publishers as they adapt to rapidly evolving market conditions. Maverick uses Marketing Process Outsourcing (MPO) to complement their client’s existing infrastructure, reducing internal overhead while still providing the necessary strength and experience for these often resource or budget challenged areas.

“With the current economic climate badly affecting many areas of our industry, and threatening revenue growth, now more than ever there is a need for focussed marketing and product development that delivers sound strategies, measured results and tangible returns," commented Martin Marlow, principal of Maverick Marketing. “With many of Maverick’s senior marketing professionals having held executive management roles in the publishing industry for the last 20 years, we are ideally positioned to apply our various experiences and expertise to fulfil the widest range of publishers marketing and product development strategies. Leveraging our worldwide network, we work with publishers to deliver projects that help them continue to grow their businesses, despite the downturn.”
Marlow continued. “Maverick’s approach is to apply practical experience and a pragmatic approach to achieving our clients' strategic or operational goals. We specialize in quickly analyzing business situations and delivering successful solutions with an entrepreneurial flair and strong focus on ROI. The Maverick team has deliberately built a record of achievement that spans all content types, market sectors and steps in the supply chain.”

The Maverick team also brings unique expertise in the field of digital publishing. Their associates have been in the electronic information industry since its very earliest days, launching, delivering and supporting a wide range of digital services including e-content aggregation platforms, cross format e-content retrieval systems and numerous online datasets and communities. They have worked for, or supported world-class industry leaders including Blackwells, Oxford University Press, Thomson, Reed Elsevier, Wolters Kluwer, ProQuest, Ingram Digital, Walter de Gruyter, Highwire and Atypon Systems and have experience spanning academic, professional and trade publishing.

Maverick Marketing associates will be attending this year’s Frankfurt Bookfair between the 14th and 18th of October in Frankfurt, Germany.